Diffusion in an expanding plasma using AdS/CFT

Abstract

We consider the diffusion of a non-relativistic heavy quark of fixed mass M, in a one-dimensionally expanding and strongly coupled plasma using the AdS/CFT duality. The Green's function constructed around a static string embedded in a background with a moving horizon, is identified with the noise correlation function in a Langevin approach. The (electric) noise decorrelation is of order 1/T(τ) while the velocity de-correlation is of order MD(τ)/T(τ). For MD > 1, the diffusion regime is segregated and the energy loss is Langevin-like. The time dependent diffusion constant D(τ) asymptotes its adiabatic limit 2/π(λ) 1/2T(τ) when τ/τ 0 = (1/3η 0τ 0) 3 where η 0 is the drag coefficient at the initial proper time τ 0.